Newspaper Page Text
Suave baritone
is Jewish
by Violet Spevack ,
Enduring singing star Tony
Martin has been a successful
entertainer in radio, motion
pictures, television and recordings
for more than 25 years.
The suave baritone, who has
appeared in posh supper dubs all
over the world, has more than 14
gold records to his record.
It may surprise you to learn that
the handsome Latin-looking
singer, who many people think is
Italian, was born on Dec. 25,1913,
to a Jewish family.
Alvin Morris legally changed his
name to Tony Martin in 1936 when
he was being cast in an RKO
musical. Still his mother kept on
calling him “Alvin” until she died
about three years ago at the age of
90. At the time he changed his
name, she disdainfully remarked
that “Tony" was “a good name for
a horse." As Tony says, "All of
Alvin Morris is still in me.”
Martin reminisced a bit about
bis youth in Oakland, Calif., where
he was born and where he and his
mother, who was divorced from
his father, lived with his maternal
grandparents, who were Orthodox
Jews. H>s grandfather, who came
from Russia in the 1850s, was
born with the surname of
Radomsky, but when he entered
Ellis Island, he called himself
Smith. His father’s side of the
family were Reform German Jews
who settled in Virginia more than
three generations ago and were
representative of the kind of Jews
described in Birmingham's book,
“Our Crowd."
Martin’s mother was certainly
not religious, but he went to
Sunday School and became bar
miteva to please his maternal
grandma, who bribed him by
giving him a dollar.
Myers, insisted that all of the big
movie stars were Jewish...like
“Tyrone Powerman," who was a
friend of Tony's.
His grandmother was a typical
Jewish matriarch and she was the Martin, who was once married
one who really ran the family. His to singer Alice Faye, also had
grandfather made a small living, romances with such beauties as
but he was also a professional Lana Turner and Rita Hayworth,
mourner...a funeral came along He has been married to fcyd
and he would be there, in his best Charisse for almost 30 yean, a
black suit, sobbing up a storm. It union that has been happy and
helped pay the rent. extremely enduring by Hollywood
. standards.
Martin has never denied the fact
that he is Jewish, but he hasn't
flaunted it either. He identifies
most strongly as a “humanist," a
person who believes in the
goodness of all people. He does
believe that his impressionable
years of growing up in a Jewish
home instilled him with a life-long
compassion for people who are less
fortunate than he...and he has
helped people and causes with that
innate feeling that he has.
Tony Martin and Cyd Charisse
Martin’s warmest memories are
of his stepfather, Meyer (Mike)
Myers, a hard-working little tailor,
who was a wonderful husband to
his mother Hattie and a loving
father to him in every way. Myers
got him his first saxophone in an
even trade with a musician who
couldn't pay for a tuxedo that
Myers had made for him.
So, the musician got the tuxedo
and young Alvin got his first sax
and went on to become a pretty
good player and a band leader in jm'ting in whjdT
high school and college...and on s —
into his adult life uniif his
wonderful baritone $oice
dominated his career.
Martin chuckled as he said that
in his later yean, his father, Mike
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personalities who are his friends,
“there is no need to defend your
roots. You are accepted by yopr
friends if you are a good person."
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